


playing the victim (that she so desperately wants to be)

by WattStalf



Series: cos your love's got the best of me (baby, you're making a fool of me) [45]
Category: Baccano!
Genre: F/M, Post-1931, police questioning, the usual warnings for these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-19 19:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19362772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: Did he harm you in any way?





	playing the victim (that she so desperately wants to be)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy July in which I attempt to celebrate the three year anniversary of me falling in love with Lua and Baccano! with a bunch of new fics. This one kicks off a series of fics detailing her time while Ladd was in prison, so yeehaw.

Lua understands what it is that she has to do, what Ladd wants her to do. There is no escaping police custody, not for him and not after what’s happened. Even if he wanted to escape, he couldn’t in his condition, and even if he  _ could _ , after an incident on this scale…she’s sure it would come back to bite him in some way, at some point in time, and sooner, rather than later.

So Ladd will be going away soon, which he tries to explain to her while they wait for help and while she tries to tend to his wounds as best as she can, with no experience and nothing to help her, and with them as serious as they are. She has never thought of herself as particularly squeamish, but she’s seen enough in the past day to test that, and the area where Ladd’s left arm used to be is as nauseating as it is horrifying.

He slips in and out of consciousness, and some of the things he says barely make sense as the blood loss makes him less than lucid, but he tries to explain to her that he has to go away for a little while, and that she can’t come with him. She wants to go with him, and she’s sure he understands that, but they both understand that she can’t.

There’s someone he’s after, but he promises her that he will come back for her as soon as he can, so in the meantime, she has to do her best to not die, which he believes that she is more than capable of. He  _ trusts _ her, he insists, as his consciousness fades again, and she wonders if she should try to convince him to take her life now, before he succumbs to blood loss once and for all.

She wonders if he could choke her with his one good hand, or if he would even have the strength to try, in his current state, but in the end, the police arrive before she can decide, and he plays his part perfectly, allowing himself to be arrested while setting her part up for her. Lua is taken into custody as well, and this is the last time that she sees Ladd for nearly four years.

~X~

Lua knows that she has to play the part of a victim, if she’s going to make it out of this situation the way that Ladd wants her to. If she goes to trial as an accomplice, she will more than likely get a smaller sentence than him, and will also likely be safe wherever she’s locked away, but Ladd does not want that for her, so she becomes his victim for the sake of her own freedom.

“How long have you known Ladd Russo?”

“A few months,” she answers, and it isn’t a lie. “Less than a year.” Sometimes it feels like she’s known him for much longer, but that’s probably just because they’ve packed so much into their whirlwind relationship.

“Were you aware of his plans regarding the trip?”

“What plans?” He’s supposed to tell him that he did everything in self-defense, so to agree that there was some sort of plan would be to sell him out. Whether or not they believe him is up to them, but she won’t do anything to contradict what he told her he would say.

The man questioning her sighs. “How many murders did you see him commit during your time on the train?”

“I didn’t see anything.” Again, it isn’t a lie, and she looks down at the table, a sad look in her eyes. “I know he did...I saw the blood, but…” She wishes that she could have witnessed at least one of the killings, but, during the bulk of his fun, she was tied up with one of his friends, and a few strangers. Lua regrets not following along with him.

Misinterpreting her sincere sadness, the man’s face softens. “I know this must be hard for you, and I hate to make you relive something so unpleasant. We just need to see as much of the picture as we can.”

“I understand,” she says quietly.

“Did he threaten to kill you?”

She bites her lip; how many times has he made that promise to her in the past year? It’s hard not to blush, and she can’t stop herself from shivering as she thinks about it. She has to play the part of the victim for the sake of her freedom, but it’s so hard, when being Ladd’s victim is what she wants most in the world. “Yes.”

“Did he harm you in any way?”

The man only means since they left Chicago, and since there was no chance for them to be intimate, she can honestly answer, “No. He didn’t have a chance.”

~X~

It’s difficult for her to describe what happened at the end, not only to describe it in a way that makes sense to them and maintains her position as a victim, but to describe it in general. She was there, and she remembers it all vividly- she doubts she could ever forget something like that, even if she tried- but to put any of it into words…

Lua has never been the best at expressing herself verbally, in any case.

By the end, she is exhausted, having said very little but still more to her interrogator than she probably has to most of her acquaintances throughout her life. It is a long and difficult process, but in the end, her innocence is determined and she is thanked for her cooperation, and then apologized to, as they express their sympathies for what she went through, and for making her relive it for them.

In the end, she doesn’t think that the information she’s given will amount to anything, since she more than likely didn’t tell them much more than they already knew. To the end, she did not expose anything that Ladd wouldn’t have wanted her to, and she escapes the situation, seen as just another victim. She’s offered compensation for the “troubles” she encountered on her trip, but she’s not unfamiliar with hush money. Well, it isn’t as if she’d have anyone to tell about this either way.

So what is she going to do now? She has no idea what happened to any of Ladd’s friends in the aftermath, but she’s sure most of them- the ones who survived, at least- have ended up behind bars by now. Even if anyone made it out with their freedom, she isn’t sure if she would be able to rely on them for protection, considering she barely remembers most of their names or faces. They’re Ladd’s friends, not hers; she was only along for the ride because of Ladd.

But she doesn’t need them to protect her, she doesn’t think. She’s made it out of this just fine, so all there is to do now is lay low and be patient, until Ladd comes back for her. He told her that he would have to go away for a little while, but he’s going to come back for her, so she just has to wait until then.

Though she really hasn’t known Ladd for very long, when she compares it to the rest of her life, she sometimes feels as though all she does is wait, and that he is doing all he can to drag things out. She wishes that it were already over with, that he had done it by now, but, at the same time, she knows that she will continue to wait patiently until they’re reunited, and until he can kill her.

Before she met him, she wanted to die, but didn’t know how; there were so many ways to kill herself or to end up killed, and nothing felt right until she saw the way he did it. First, she fell in love with his methods, then, with the idea of him being the one to end her life, and then, with Ladd. She could die at any time, she knows, and after wanting to die for so long, it seems strange to have such a drive to keep herself alive, but she will.

Until she can see Ladd again, and really become his victim, she will wait patiently, just as she always had. Until she can see Ladd again, she can remember the brief thrill she felt as she pretended to have been his victim, and look forward to the day that that wish comes true.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in my writing updates, please follow my fanfiction twitter @WattStalf  
> I'll follow back so long as you don't post anything hateful!


End file.
